No money for upgrades to vital police despatch system due to start next month

Police have no commitment to carrying on with an upgrade of their outdated and fragmented IT system for sending officers out to fight crimes and other jobs.

That is despite the recent police performance review warning they will "not keep pace" with growing crime volumes without a new system.

"Modernisation of the dispatch system is essential to improve operational performance and service delivery," it said in April.

It showed officers currently relied on two unconnected computer aided despatch (CAD) platforms that invited mistakes.

"This requires dispatchers to manually coordinate information across multiple screens, creating inefficiencies and increasing the risk of error," said the review, the first of its kind by the Public Service Commission.

It made acquiring a modern, unified CAD system one of its 14 recommendations.

The police's 10-year upgrade plan in response said, "Planning and early delivery work is underway to progress a national Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) upgrade and associated fleet telematics capability."

They want better telematics - what is called automatic vehicle location - for "nearest capable unit" dispatch and live status of specialist resources.

The 10-year plan said phase two of the CAD upgrade would be ready to begin in July 2026 "subject to funding".

But asked by RNZ about this, it was evident the funding was not in hand.

"There is no commitment to progressing the upgrade at this stage of the process," police said in a statement.

They would decide on that once they had completed phase one that looked at feasibility and likely costs of a new CAD.

Budget 2026 did not have money for CAD.

Meanwhile, the old CAD keeps running, while tech advances carry on.

"A contemporary dispatch solution should incorporate predictive and analytical capabilities," said April's review.

"For example, the ability to anticipate the impact of emerging patterns - such as a surge of incidents within a neighbourhood - would enable proactive resource deployment."

CAD is one of several vital police IT response upgrades that have taken a slow track or been paused in the last few years, including an overhaul of 111, usually around Budget.

The performance review called 111 "fragile".

After years of stop-start moves on 111, the 10-year plan said police had recently set up a cross-agency (with ambulance and fire) to look at options this year to address "identified vulnerabilities".

Existing 111 and 105 systems remain in operation while future capability is assessed, the police plan said.

The plan made clear police are juggling a raft of investment pressures, and talks of managing the"trade-offs".

It noted pressure to invest to upgrade CAD, 111, digital and forensic capability, a digital transformation, the finance system heavily faulted in April's review, and data and intelligence tools - not to mention "property uplift, corporate capability, workforce training, new specialist teams, and frontline enablement and officer safety initiatives".